Are we there yet?

So! I have finally made it to finding out who my first host family is, I have three siblings and a wonderful mom! she is so sweet! and they are just as anxious to meet me as I am to meet them! two former students that went before me had my first family as one of their host families and that is comforting to know that they enjoy hosting kids! I have already met and made some incredible young men and women and I cannot wait to meet them in person this coming up month! I didn't realize how emotional exchange was! Your leaving all your friends and family behind to go experience the world and become a better and more humble human being. I am so blessed for this opportunity and I know that I will learn so much from it as we say goodbye to July and hello to August the days are dwindling down to when I leave, no official date yet, (Visa is still in the works about 3 weeks in) but to think that I soon will be on a plane heading for La Reina, Santiago is still so surreal. I still can't believe that I am going to such an amazing and beautiful place on my own for a year. Even though I am safe guarded by the rotary and the families its on my own and that in itself is empowering. There is so much to say but not many words can describe this upcoming experience, the friends I will make, the adults I will grow close too, the places and things I will get to see and do. Its overwhelming! But it serves such a great purpose and this program is truly amazing. I got the opportunity to meet some of this years kids just briefly but they were all rather extraordinary, I am lucky to have one of them living not to far from me during my exchange! I know that we will become great friends, she is so sweet and rather extraordinary herself. I was just telling my friends that I didn't really realize how emotional exchange is and how many people are involved in Rotary Youth Exchange, all the great adults I have gotten to meet, I am so lucky and I know this now. I didn't know what to expect coming into this program, I wasn't sure if I would even be able to go and to know that I was one of the lucky 30 or so kids getting to go abroad this year with our district was just surreal in itself. The days seem slow as I wait for my visa to be done processing and as I begin to prepare for my departure. I know it will be here before I know it, sometimes it just feels like its never coming, because this can't be real right? People don't actually let the 17 year olds go to a foreign country without them for a year right? That is crazy talk, pinch me now because it seems like a cruel cruel dream! haha. I already am making plans to return to Chile in a year or so to bring my mom and brother to where I stayed and then in college return to do a year again in Chile. I have dreams to travel to Italy, (and really learn about my mom's side of the family) and to go back to Germany the birth place of my younger brother, and to Japan to eat real sushi and experience full on comiccon! There are so many places I wish to see and experience, so many people to meet and learn from! I think this is a great start before college, it truly prepares you for the real world. It is a year off but a year on in a sense that you are learning and striving outside of your home country, building new relationships with new and different people, making new aspirations and gaining new passions. It is an extraordinary thing in itself. It's RYE.